On Christmas Day 1919, William Arthur Shelton
sailed from New York bound for Naples, Italy. He would not return home
again until September 1920, after a journey that would take him to Egypt,
through modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, and back again to
Egypt before returning to Atlanta via Paris, London, and New York. His
modes of travel were as diverse as the sites he saw -- steamship, train,
donkey and horseback...

Shelton, Professor at Emory University, joined four other American scholars
in what came to be known as The American Scientific Mission. Shelton's
job was to buy ancient artifacts for Emory University. It was often the
goal of early archaeological expeditions to return home with ancient treasures.
These objects could be studied by experts and were fascinating to people
who couldn't travel to these exotic places.

Shelton tells us about his experiences in a travel diary that gives
us a glimpse of the wondrous remains of ancient Near Eastern civilization
as he saw them. Here's a piece of a game called "Journey
to the Middle East" that you can try out. You'll need a Macintosh
computer and the shockwave plug-in to view it.